Cao Shuang thought about it, and directly thought of the first year of Zhengshi.

This is the first official year after Cao Fang ascended the throne.

After thinking about it for nearly half a year, Cao Shuang only did one thing in addition to sending a full pet to the Hedong region to act as a central protector and coordinate Qin Lang and Xiahouba to fight together-30,000 county soldiers were dispatched to Hedong again.

They were all temporary recruits.

Although this is done, there are more than 100,000 soldiers and horses in the Hedong region, but. In the end, what strategic way to use to defend the Hedong region, Cao Shuang still couldn't come up with an accurate idea.

At the same time, the Han side, through nearly half a year of accumulation, has completed the preparation of grain, grass and ordnance, and now it is only necessary to wait for the soldiers of each state to arrive, and the Northern Expedition can be launched immediately.

On the Yanzhou side, Jiang Wei and Wen Qin have already led 50,000 Han forbidden troops to Puyang, and Wei Yan has also led 50,000 Yanzhou soldiers to arrive at Suojuo, ready to cross the river at any time.

In the southern region, 20,000 soldiers from Biqiu Jian were in Chenliu, 20,000 troops from Hu Zuntun were in Jiyin County, and 20,000 troops from Chen Tai in Yingchuan County were cooperated to jointly defend against Lu Xun of Eastern Wu.

In Jingzhou, Zhang Xi had already led the first batch of 50,000 county soldiers to Luoyang, and the second batch of 30,000 people arrived one after another under the leadership of Kou Feng.

On the Qinzhou side, the 40,000 Qinzhou soldiers led by Jiang Xu have also entered Guanzhong, and they will arrive in Chang'an in a few days.

As for Yongzhou, the 30,000 county soldiers in Yongzhou have arrived in Luoyang under the leadership of Pang Tong, and the remaining 20,000 county soldiers plus 20,000 Liangzhou cavalry, and 10,000 Wudang Fei troops have also been assembled in the Zuo Fengyi area and can go out at any time.

The time of the Northern Expedition is also basically determined, and it will be after the end of the spring ploughing of the ninth year of Yanxi in the Han Dynasty.

Before the Northern Expedition, Zhang Xi, Pang Tong, Deng Ai, Wei Yan, Zhuge Liang, and Xu Shu once again conducted a pre-war military meeting in Luoyang to determine the combat deployment between them.

The grand strategy has already been arranged, but the specific route and timing of the march still need to meet with each other to determine, and the time to save the time will be inconvenient to communicate back and forth, resulting in the loss of fighters.

In particular, the Third Route Army needed to land in Hedong from Pubanjin, and it was separated from the Hanoi battlefield by a Wangwu Mountain, which was inconvenient for communication, so it had to be coordinated in advance.

This is also the reason why Deng Ai and Pang Tong will appear in the Luoyang Military Conference, Jiang Xu is still on the way to lead the troops, and it can only be the deputy marshal Deng Ai and the strategist Pang Tong who come to attend this meeting.

"In this Northern Expedition, the old man will lead 180,000 troops to cross the river at the end of March and enter the north bank of Mengjindu, and then the troops will be divided into two routes, one to attack Wenxian and the other to attack Heyang."

"In May, the Yuan Chang and the Wen Chang each led 50,000 troops, went out of Yanjin, Baima, and came to Hebei, jointly attacked Liyang, and made a move to contain Guo Huai."

"In June, Shi Zaisu, together with Jiang Boyi, led 80,000 troops to cross the river from Pubanjin and attack Hedong. These three ways go hand in hand, which is the strategy of this Northern Expedition, and you must keep it in mind. ”

"If there is an accident, if it does not violate the general situation, the generals and commanders of all walks of life can act cheaply, if it violates the general situation, it is necessary to be cautious and order, and order someone to send a letter to Hanoi, and there can be no mistakes."

After the meeting began, Zhuge Liang first emphasized the overall strategy of the Northern Expedition, and at the same time agreed with the military horses of all walks of life to send their own troops.

And the rest of the matter is to see what problems there are between the commanders of the various troops.

Zhuge Liang naturally has nothing to say here, Zhuge Liang will personally take command, and take Xu Shu and more than 30 generals in the Luoyang area to go out together.

Therefore, according to the usual practice, it is time for Zhang Xi and Wei Yan to express their respective positions.

However, the person who stood up to report the situation this time was not Zhang Xi, but Wei Yan.

After all, Zhang Xi had just arrived in Luoyang from Jingzhou, and he had not yet arrived in Yanzhou to take up his post, and the person who really understood the combat readiness of the entire Yanzhou County was actually Wei Yan.

The previous report, in fact, is not a big deal, it is a normal report on the situation of army build-up, military rations, and ordnance reserves.

However, from the beginning of the second part, something is a little wrong. If there is no moth, then it will not be Wei Yan.

After completing the report normally, Wei Yan suddenly walked to the military map, pointed to Chaoge, and asked, "The last general still has a question. May I ask the Prime Minister, after my Yanzhou County soldiers crossed the river from Yanjin, why didn't they go north nearby and attack Chaoge, but instead they had to go to Liyang together?! ”

That's a bit of a question. Zhuge Liang frowned.

In fact, Zhuge Liang really didn't like Wei Yan's approach of suddenly playing a strategy before the battle started, which would add unnecessary risks to the offensive strategy that had already been formulated.

However, Zhuge Liang can't help but explain this question.

After all, now Wei Yan is also the second person in the military, and after decades of getting along, everyone knows that this person's character is strong, as long as what you say makes sense, he will also listen.

"This Northern Expedition, if it is just to attack Hanoi or Jizhou, the strategy of the chief of Wen may not be impossible!" Zhuge Liang frowned and said to Wei Yan, "It's just that this battle is a battle to destroy the country. ”

This explanation, in fact, has been made very clear.

However, Wei Yan is also an old soldier, and he is not the kind of reckless man who lacks strategic vision, of course he knows that this time he is fighting a war to destroy the country, and he needs to be cautious, and at the same time, he needs to pay attention to timing.

Therefore, Wei Yan's real problem is not the question of why he should go to Liyang at the expense of the near and far, but

"Yan also knows this, but if we cross the river from Yanjin and attack Liyang instead of Chaoge, so willing to seek the near and far, with Guo Huai's ability, it is inevitable that we will be suspicious, wouldn't it be a grass startling snake?!"

If the army is going north from Baima Ferry, then there is no problem to attack Liyang, after all, it is the first important town after crossing the Yellow River from Baima Ferry, and it is also the center of gravity of the Yellow River defense line set up by Guo Huai, and it is not a problem for 100,000 soldiers and horses to take the initiative to attack Liyang.

But since they all divided their troops to attack, Zhang Xi took the Baima Ferry, and Wei Yan took the Yanjin Ferry. After Wei Yan crossed the river at Yanjin Ferry, he didn't go to the closer Chaoge, but went east to fight Liyang, which is unreasonable, right?!

And on this . Zhuge Liang didn't know how to explain it.

As for Wei Yan, he has been guarding outside all the year round, and when he made several decisions on the Northern Expedition, Wei Yan basically didn't participate, so he didn't know about some things.

For example, the Great Han is within Cao Wei, and there is a high-level internal response.

Therefore, in fact, Wei Yan didn't know that Zhuge Liang had a complete map of Cao Wei's defensive forces in the Yellow River defense line in Jizhou.

The number of troops attacking Hebei from Dongjun was only 100,000 in total, and Zhuge Liang also instructed Zhang Xi's soldiers to divide into two routes and cross the river at the same time from the two ferries of Yanjin and Baima, which was actually a tactical choice after opening the "map hanging".

According to this map of the distribution of troops on the Yellow River defense line of Cao Wei, Guo Huai was on a line from Yanjin Ferry to Baima Ferry, including Liyang, a total of four county towns, each of which arranged about 20,000 soldiers and horses to garrison.

Obviously, in this way of deploying defensive forces, the division of troops is too scattered, and there is no focus on defense, giving people the feeling that they are fortified everywhere, but they cannot be defended everywhere.

With Guo Huai's ability, he will definitely not make such a dull strategic deployment, and he must have a deep meaning in doing so.

According to Zhuge Liang's prediction, Guo Huai's purpose in doing this is probably to divide the troops, lure the enemy into depth, and disintegrate the Han army's ability to attack fortifications, so as to break through each one.

And the proof is that Guo Huai arranged for Xiahou Xuan to lead 10,000 soldiers and horses to garrison here.

10,000 soldiers and horses, not much, but less is not less, if you cooperate with the 20,000 Wei troops who took the initiative to retreat on the north bank of Yanjin. Wei Yan only brought 50,000 soldiers and horses, and it was difficult for him to go north to capture Chaoge, but he might be trapped under Chaoge City, unable to advance or retreat, and be outflanked by other garrison troops led by Guo Huai.

And this is probably Guo Huai's real defensive strategy.

As for Zhuge Liang, he deliberately let Zhang Xi and Wei Yan take the initiative to divide their troops, cross the river from Yanjin and Baima, and make a posture of splitting the two places, which is actually deliberately misleading Guo Huai, making him think that his strategic plan has succeeded, so he chooses to take the initiative to retreat, give up the frontline battlefield along the Yellow River, and then let Wei Yan suddenly advance eastward, along the battlefield passage that Guo Huai let out, join forces with Zhang Xi as soon as possible, and attack Liyang, so as to have a surprise effect.

As for Chaoge, it also occupies a very important position in Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition plan, and it must not be captured in advance, so the only choice can only be to attack Liyang together.

This is the strategic arrangement made by Zhuge Liang based on detailed intelligence, but these detailed information, ordinary detailed works, cannot be inquired about in such detail.

At least the defense situation on the way from Yanjin to Chaoge cannot be inquired into too much detail.

If you want to explain to Wei Yan, you must first explain Liu Fang's matter, and Zhuge Liang really didn't dare to tell Wei Yan about Liu Fang.

Wei Yan is a martial artist in the end, and his temperament is also quite straightforward, if this secret is told to him, it is really hard to say whether he can keep it or not.

However, it wouldn't be a matter if you didn't say it all the time, after all, Wei Yan is now also the second person in the military of the Han Dynasty, and he is in a high position, so he is actually qualified to know about this matter.

Of course, the most important thing is Wei Yan's temper, he belongs to the donkey, if you don't explain it to him now, he may really act without permission and go north to attack Chaoge.

In that case, you really fell into Guo Huai's trap.

I came back late today, and the code word was too long.

(End of chapter)